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Hot Property: Hwy. 610-Noble Parkway park and ride in Brooklyn Park

May 17, 2013 at 3:55AM

Julie Snow Architects (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

4401 95th Av. N., Brooklyn Park

Type: Parking structure

Capacity: 1,000 cars

Contractor: Knutson Construction

Architect: Julie Snow Architects

Details: Metro Transit's plan for a 1,000-car park-and-ride facility in Brooklyn Park is moving ahead with the Metropolitan Council's approval of a construction bid from Golden Valley-based Knutson Construction this week.

The firm submitted the winning bid of $8.4 million for a project that been estimated by Metro Transit engineers to carry a $10.1 million price tag.

Since 2000, the transit agency has had a 511-car surface lot at the Hwy. 610-Noble Parkway interchange, which has been operating at a capacity of 90 percent or higher in the past 12 years. Parking demand, meanwhile, is continuing to mount in Brooklyn Park thanks to job and population growth in the area.

The new facility, which will include a 500-car ramp and 500 surface parking spaces, will be built on a formerly contaminated 9.22-acre parcel, across Noble Parkway from the existing lot, that was acquired through condemnation in 2011. It has room for 500 additional surface spaces in the future.

It will feature south-facing solar photovoltaic panels for energy production, a geothermal heating and cooling system, an electric vehicle recharging station, heated and lighted bus waiting areas and bicycle racks.

A summer 2014 opening is expected for the ramp, which serves Metro Transit Route 766.

Don Jacobson is a freelance writer in St. Paul. He can be reached at hotproperty.startribune@gmail.com.